Reply to Rita: Personal growth LO25079
This one is so old I should be pinched for bringing it up now! But hey I
finally got time to write a few or was it more like got charged up enough
to say things?
[Host's Note: Joy, taking a break from the thesis, eh? We're glad to have
your spirited notes here! ..Rick]
Personal growth. Interesting how in today's world created thanks to Senge
(great guy!) we can openly talk about things that made so many in the
business community call a man a sissyi for bringing airyfairy soft girlie
things into the business roundtable. I gotta love that man!
Finally someone who let the woman's voice be heard.
So as I was saying ... I have a few things to say after reading what Rita
had to say. Hope it is of constructive use.
What would you recommend when you experience that your personal growth
rate exceeds that of the company employing you?
If one talks about the personal growth rate of the company as a whole...
lets see how we define it first to support the point I have to make. A
company is made up of people.. people like you and others. The collection
of all PG rates averaged over the number of people working makes the PG rate
of the company.
Thus you are partly responsible for that PG rate for being where it is.
Now ... if your PG rate is higher than that of the company, it does not
necessarily mean yours is the highest in the company right? Thus
recommendation steps directly from this: increase you PG rate! It will bring
the company's rate up!
If you have the top PG rate (great!) in the company and everyone else is
bringing the company rate down then we have other things to consider.
(Reminds me of my Decision Making class with Jim Corner). Why is the PG rate
of others around you lower than yours? Is it just them or the environment
they work in? If it is the environment they work in, then how come it has
not effected you in the same way? OR if it has affected you, then it would
mean if though your PG rate is highest for now, it is certainly not the best
you can achieve if the conditions are just right.
And if it is definitely the environment, what contributions have you made
with your advantage (of having a higher PG rate) to aid the increase in
other PG rates. One might say : what should I do that for? Might I remind
you.. personal growth is about more than just "how do I make just my life
comfycozy!" I need not say more. I am sure we all know the
responsibilities that entail self actualization and growth.
IF you think none of this is helping and you have tried everything
possible, then leaving the company is the only option. However, before you
leave make sure of two main things:
1. you were not a contributor to the low rate (i.e. the company's PG rate
should not rise as soon as you hand in resignation hehe),
2. that you have explored all possibilities of changes you can make or
influence or at least create an awareness for in the company that has
enabled you to actualize that personal growth in the first place.
Then and only then can you make a decision to leave.
Reminds me of "let he who has not sinned cast his first rock." Have to
really look deep into ones heart to know whether one has been really wronged
or is one partly responsible for the wrong that has occurred in your
perception.
Oh yeah... perception brings me to a last comment. Remember that your PG
rate being higher than the company's or anyone else'¦s is self assessment
only. Make sure that you use more than just others looking dopey all the
time as a measure of your position.
May I add as a parting note that most often I think people get bored at
their jobs more out of the fact that they have given up on exploring new
avenues. This is because either that they have been lazy or they have
explored ... but only those avenues that interest or suite them or their
personal growth. One has to ensure that this has not happened and the mind
has fooled the eyes in thinking that one is bored and really too good to be
there.
* What to do if this is a pattern you experience regularly (every 2 - 3
>years after a job change)?
Then I think one really needs to sit and review what personal growth has
occurred through all these years and re-access the direction you want to
take yourself. One cannot change another but only reflect and change if
needed themselves and themselves alone.
It is so easy to find the other being wrong and so hard to take part of
the blame... even if it seems like none of your own fault. Also, if a
pattern repeats itself with no change whatsoever, I doubt any learning is
going on... which means your PG rate should be dropping over the years. I
say this because personal growth cannot continue if one has to keep
backing out of things every year or so. PG enables one to continue to grow
within a given situation and/or find ways to increase the benefits to
others around oneself in order to raise the average PG around them thus
changing the environment they work in for the better to aid their own
learning and growth. Until a person can do that one can never claim to
have a PG rate better than the company they work in. And even then, the
company's rate increases due to such endeavors.
Thus, a person who is truly high on their PG rate can never encounter a
situation where they do not feel challenged enough. They only feel that
way if they do not put in the effort or are doing nothing about taking
their job somewhere where they will feel challenged enough to stay.
We will be always a contributor to the averages around us. Question is
what we want to do about it to increase those averages so as to challenge
us. Or is it right to keep walking out just for the sake of the
individual? What does that really solve?
... What to do if you have invested as much in the company as you could
(strategically, as well as in terms of transfer of knowledge)?
RE access. Have you really? Just makes me think of going through school.
Each year we finish and move on to another level to learn more. As each
years ends we are made to feel that we must have invested all we can so now
we can move on (excepting those who flunk). But really looking back.. even
though I was a good student most years, I cannot truly look myself in the
mirror and say.. yes I invested all I could in every possible way into a
class.
It is an amazing claim if someone can make it. And half those times I was
scoring almost 100% and was far ahead of everyone in class in the content I
knew. Even today if I went back to year one of college I would have to go
through the same struggles and motions despite me having done all I could
for it back then. Thus personal growth is all well.. but does not stand
alone of other disciplines in life. Mastery is another thing coming. One
cannot just take one aspect of ones strength and condemn a company for it.
There is a lot more to making a relationship work than personal growth!
> Is changing jobs an option? If yes, where to? If not, what else?
It Is always an option. There is no limitations to what you can chose to
do under any circumstances.. even if you are doing well in it. But where
to in this.. hmmmmmmmmm. Where you wanna take yourself! Simple! There is
no fixed answer. Remember jumping jobs is also part of a learning cycle
and maybe that is the way you learn and give best.. short term
relationships. If it bothers you then you have to see why it bothers you.
Does it bother you others are slower than you are? What have you done
about it? If you haven't then why bother about something you do not want
to resolve in the first place?
> Have other LO members made similar experiences?
I have but not in terms of job as much as in studies. Every deptt I
shifted into I felt my PG rate was higher than of those around me. So I
got bored and moved. What came naturally to me people struggled over so it
bored me even more. I found it so sickening to have twits who didnˇ¦t know
a thing getting a degree just like I did, I didnˇ¦t even attend my own
graduation because I felt it was useless to be up on that podium with
those idiots that did not even respect education and just came for the
piece of paper. BUT is that really growth when I keep running from
wherever I encounter variables to my dislike? What did I do to improve
others? I taught. I tutored students who were slow and willing to improve
their condition. And from it was born my satisfaction from my studies.
Even though I was still going to school with kids who were disrespecting
education, it did not feel that bad anymore. Because I could help at least
one other to see the truth and learn to love education.. thus increasing
the avg. PG rate across all in term.
Hope my ramblings have made some sense and were of some relevance. Otherwise
excuse moi!
Joy Vatsyayann
Bsc Phys.(Hons)(III), BSc Biology (Genetics Major),
PGDip. Management Systems,
Masters in Management Systems (current)
Waikato University
Hamilton
New Zealand
pixie_delite@hotmail.com
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com>
Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.
--"Pixie Delite" <pixie_delite@hotmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.